The Pretender
by SleeperJack
Summary: Killed in a firefight, a man finds himself reincarnated in the ME Universe 3 years after the First Contact War. Rico Ransom knows one thing: The Reapers are coming and he has two decades to prepare. With a war approaching, Rico struggles to define himself in his new life. Maybe reincarnation isn't what it is cracked up to be. Slightly AU, the beginning is mostly focused on OC.
1. The Soldier

**Shahi-Kot Valley, Afghanistan, 24 December 2012 AD**

Bryan rubbed his hands together in another vain attempt to ward off the cold. Wisps of fog dissipated as he slowly exhaled. He pulled up his neckgaitor high. Scanning to the left and right, Bryan spotted the tell-tale green rings circling the eyes of his squad from the night-vision devices they all wore. Bryan looked out in the distance. Mountains extended around them a few kilometers in each direction, as if trying to isolate the godforsaken place. Sparse vegetation spotted the otherwise featureless protrusions of dirt and rocks. He pondered a moment and came to the conclusion that this was Earth's way of making a natural prison. His hate for this place grew as he thought about it more.

A few hours ago they got alerted by the company leadership. ISR feeds had tracked a team of Taliban insurgents in the valley. The Company Commander had spun up Bryan's platoon for the patrol. Overall, nothing out of the ordinary. It was highly likely the insurgents stopped at this cluster of derelict buildings, remnants of Soviet occupation decades ago.

The squad slowly crept up to the dull brown rocky outcropping that sat just short of a hundred meters from the objective. Holding up a fist, Bryan silently ordered his men into the assault position. Infrared lasers painted the entire building, a rotation of movement as the light went from window to door, high and low. The pure anticipation and excitement was palpable across the small group. On this deployment, they had done dozens of these types of raids and had grown confident as a team. Everyone was eager at another chance to hit the bastards. This particular group of insurgents killed a few of the local kids, children of a friendly tribal elder. After spending a year in the region, the local children had become something akin to surrogate sons and daughters.

"_Coyote 1-2, Coyote 1-6, 1st_ _squad in position, breach building four on the south wall."_ Called the platoon leader over the radio.

"_6, 2, acknowledge, moving now." _Bryan maneuvered his squad up, the soft crunch of their boots on the icy dirt just loud enough to be heard by the soldiers making the noise.

Bryan swiped his infrared laser against the door, signaling to his team leader to breach the door. Two shots from his team leader's shotgun broke the silence about as effectively as it broke the door in front of him. His squad swiftly assaulted through the building. Both teams following their rehearsed routes with a practiced proficiency. Shots from their M4s echoed like cacophony of lightning in the compound. Bryan trailed behind his teams, allowing them to clear the building without him getting in the way. Once all the firing had ceased, a moment had passed before he started hearing the reports.

"Room one and two clear, three enemy KIA." Yelled his alpha team leader.

"Room three clear, two enemy KIA." His bravo team leader followed up.

Bryan gave them both instructions to start searching the building and wounded. Content as they started moving with purpose, he reached for his mic to call up his report. As he keyed the mic, a loud explosion sent him flying, slamming him hard against the back wall. A searing pain flashed across the right side of his body. Temporarily blinded and deafened by the blast, Bryan could only stumble as he attempted to stand to face the new threat. He paused trying to assess the situation before he started moving again. The soft reverberations of rifle fire reassured him. At least some of his squad was engaging whoever started the counterattack.

Bryan tried to brace himself against the wall using his right arm. Sickening pain pulsated throughout his body as his arm folded in an unnatural way, sending him forward into the ground once again. He leaned back against the wall and tried his best to slow his breathing.

_My body is absolutely wrecked_. _How the hell did they get the jump on us. _Bryan's mind was thinking in circles, chances were he wasn't going to make it out of this one.

His vision from his one good eye, if you could call it that, was murky like looking through a window layered with condensation. The other was blistered shut from the blast. He looked around the room, he saw the shapes of two of his men, crumpled into a mess on the ground. The sight made him want to vomit and breakdown. He could feel the pit of his stomach sinking. The firefight had stopped now but none of his soldiers came into the room to check for casualties. Bryan couldn't fool himself, he knew that meant only one thing.

Steeling himself, he brought up his rifle with his intact arm and pointed it at the room's door, the effort was exhausting. He would get at least one of the insurgents who had just annihilated his entire squad. Quiet breathing was all he heard for several moments until some heavy foot steps and words spoken in some dialect of Pashto echoed from outside.

Tightening his grip causing his knuckles to turn white, he steadied his shaky hand. A man with his face covered in a balaclava walked inside, barely looking at the bodies at his feet. Bryan squeezed the triggered once, then twice, all his shots digging into the insurgent's chest. The masked man fell to the ground, clutching at his abdomen for a few moments and then went still.

Bryan listened to the panicked chatter from outside the building. One them stuck their AK47 into the doorway and blindly fired off an entire magazine. Rounds landed all around the room, with two burying into Bryan's leg and torso. His grip loosened on his rifle and it clacked on the ground. Another of the masked men strode into the room, staring at the American and the blood pooling under him. Bryan saw the barrel of a rifle raise up to his face. His jaw clenched in determination.

"Bastard." Bryan said with ragged breath.

The man stared at Bryan for a moment, he raised up the rifle to his cheek, aiming down the weapon's sights. Bryan maintained eye contact with his working eye, face tight from the rage he couldn't physically express.

_This is how I die, helpless against some worthless human being. All my men are dead. This never should have happened._

A single shot rang out, the soldier's lifeless body slumping into blood that pooled onto the dirt.

**Detroit, United North American States, 25 March 2160 CE**

The five year old sat on the carpet, staring at his tiny hands. Sometimes he would have strange thoughts or remember things he has never seen. He recognized strange objects, that felt both familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. He glanced around the room. The child saw a woman with dark hair and beautiful, soft features. That was his mother, he knew, but he also remembered another woman, a taller blonde woman, who was also his mother. The woman with dark hair was tapping away on a blue holo-pad.

His hands. Why were they so small? He was a grown man, why did he have such tiny hands. _You couldn't hold a rifle with these hands, _the boy thought to himself. _Rifle?_ _What the hell is a rifle?_ He was confused. Like soft gusts of wind in his head, thoughts would scratch the surface of his consciousness and disappear as quickly as they came.

He tried to think. Something wasn't right. He did not belong here. A sudden wave of pain and disorientation hit the small child. It felt like his skull was in a vice, the pressure was almost too much to bear. His eyes snapped shut, as if to keep them from popping out of their sockets. Images flashed through his head, his 21st birthday party, basic training, his girlfriend in high school. Unimportant memories and important ones in a constant flow, as if the floodgate in his mind was opened. It continued like this for several moments and then a particular memory came to mind. He clung onto it, holding it focused in his thoughts.

A patrol in Afghanistan. They were hit, ambushed by an enemy. He remembered death, his friends killed in the battle. He died too. He must have, he remembered the barrel pointing at his face as if it had happened hours ago. Nothing made sense. His pulse sounded like drums in his ears. He scanned the room he was in. It was not familiar. He looked over at the woman, in her hands a device he had seen only in science fiction games and movies.

"Where am I?" As the boy said it, a voice came out, it was unfamiliar and sounded extremely adolescent. It was not his voice he knew.

He heard a metallic clack as the flat holo-pad hit the ground. The woman's eyes were wide and it looked as if she were about to cry.

"Oh Sofia, now you are hearing things" She said quietly to herself. Her hands holding the sides of her head firmly.

"Who are you?" The child directed his question at the slightly frightened woman now.

The woman looked at him with her light brown eyes, a shocked expression across her face, as if she could not believe he was asking her a question. "Dios mío... Daniel! Rico is talking!" The woman said in an excited, almost hysterical tone.

"What was that honey?" Asked a light skinned man who walked in from a different room. He dressed in a familiar looking, but unusual suit. An even more familiar orange hologram projection covering his left forearm.

"Richter. Tell mommy again what you just asked!" The woman was close to him now, moving her arms to embrace him.

"Who are you two?" The child asked again before the woman could touch him.


	2. The Good Doctor

**Detroit, United North American States, 16 April 2161 CE**

"Hey there stranger," Richter said to his reflection in a low whisper.

The boy stared at himself in the mirror. He could just barely peak over the bathroom counter top to get a good look at himself. A young boy with Anglo-Hispanic features and bright greenish-brown eyes stared back at him. It was a face he was starting to recognize at his own. On top of his head grew a light brown mess of hair, he would need to comb that, suddenly remembering why he was in the bathroom. He mindlessly grabbed a comb and started running it through his hair. Honestly, he didn't mind his new appearance, even though he thought it was strange at first. His hair was a few shades lighter than his skin, which wasn't too uncommon he had learned. He was adjusting to his new appearance the best he could. In his previous life, he had been Caucasian but that didn't matter anymore.

"Rico!" The familiar voice called to him from the living room.

"Yes, I'm almost done!" Richter called out in response.

He put on his best kid impression he could manage. It had been only a year since he started fully realizing who he was and who he is now. He had overheard in a few isolated conversations that he didn't cry or talk much as an infant and toddler. Both of his parents grew very concerned for the first five years of Richter's childhood. Words like savant and autistic were thrown around in an attempt to figure out what was wrong with him. They had sunk a small fortune into gene therapy during his mother's pregnancy precisely to avoid any genetic disorders. Most of their concerns had ceased since Richter regained his self awareness, though it didn't prevent the dozen hospital visits in the past year.

_I deserve an Emmy for my performance. _A sarcastic smile crept onto his face as he moved toward his twin-sized bed. The room was rather large and lacked colorful decorations you would expect for a young child. Some artwork hung on the walls and the furniture all had matching shades of blue and gray. Aside from the bed and short set of drawers, the only other set of furniture was a desk with a chair that sat against the wall. On top the desk was an integrated terminal with access to the intranet. His father Daniel had used it once or twice, but he had not taught Richter how to operate the device. Incidentally, Richter was certain he could decipher it easily enough.

He slipped his arms through a small, long sleeved jacket with a high collar that was resting on the bed moments ago. Uncomfortably formal would be the best way to describe how he felt about the popular clothing. Richter knew the reason why this jacket was worn rather often, but it didn't make him any more happy about it.

Richter discovered months ago he reincarnated in a much different world than he left. Aside from being able to remember his past life, the first big hints were the technologically unfamiliar holo-pads around the house and the regular passing of air cars outside his windows. It wasn't until he heard his parents talk about the Citadel Council and all the new species of alien that humanity came in contact with that he finally made the connection.

There was only one unlikely, but reasonable explanation, he somehow reincarnated into the game Mass Effect. Strangely, he was born before the events of the game, but he didn't want to dwell with that thought too long. He recalled some of the codex and had a pretty good working knowledge of the universe as a whole. All he needed to do now was absorb the detailed information and gain a functional understanding of the world around him. By looking at the dates, Richter gathered that the First Contact War followed faithfully to the timeline. It was safe to assume that key events will occur in a likewise fashion.

The prospect of reliable prophetic knowledge at his disposal was certainly appealing, but in about two decades the Reapers will begin their attack on Citadel space. Shepard and his team will eventually win, but Earth still gets invaded by the Reapers, augmented with their army of husks. _Training, equipment and knowledge will come in time. I will not get killed a second time,_ the boy thought while he tugged on his cuffs. With over twenty years to prepare, Richter decided not to sweat it too much, at least not until he was older. One man can't change the course of the universe, but at the very least he would be able to survive. After checking his reflection for a final time, he turned smartly on his heels and exited the room.

Shafts of natural light flowed into the rather extravagant living room. On the couch sat a beautiful Hispanic woman in her late twenties tapping away on a holo-pad. Probably checking the schedule for the shuttle they would take to the hospital. Sofía turned her head as soon as she heard him enter the room. She gave him a sweet smile, an action he had come to appreciate greatly. As far as mothers went, Sofía was excellent. Kind, not overbearing and always willing to spend time talking with him.

"There's my handsome little man," Sofía said while readjusting Richter's pseudo-mandarin collar. "The shuttle is on its way, lets go."

Just as they stepped outside of their apartment building's lobby, a gray shuttle landed, blue jets of flame kicking up a gust as it did. Richter stepped into the shuttle followed by Sofía. He felt the shuttle start to take off, his gut wrenched. The sudden change in g-force was jarring. Apparently newer models were outfitted with devices that generated mass effect fields and canceled any sudden changes to the g-force, but this was an older model.

He leaned over and looked at Sofía's holo-pad. News stories with headlines like _Asari Delegate Meets Systems Alliance Officials At Arcturus Station_ and _Council Agrees to Allow Military Tech Exchange_ littered the page. It had only been four years since the conclusion of the First Contact War and already huge amounts of new technology was flooding into human hands. Even his father often wore an omni-tool at home.

"You want me to read you these words, Rico?" He looked up to see Sofía looking at him with a soft smile. She must have saw him staring at the glowing blue screen in her hands.

"Geez mom, you know I've been learning to read!" Richter said as bashfully as he could manage.

"Ho~ then why don't you give it a try?" Sofía turned the screen towards her son.

_Guess I'll ham this up enough. I know I'd struggle with this if I were actually six._

"A-Asari delegate meets systems ally-anse offi-offi-"

"Officials."

"I know!" Richter said adding in a slight tone of embarrassment. "Officials at arc-tor-us station."

"It's pronounced Arcturus, but you did really well! Those are some tough words," Sofía ruffled his previously combed hair, a wide smile on his face reacting to the praise he received. Richter felt guilty acting like this. His parents deserved to raise a child, rather than inheriting an anomaly like him.

Sofía continued to scroll through various news stories, eventually pausing as she reached a particular story titled _Kassa Fabrication Tech Trade Agreement Reached with Asari Armali Council_. The picture for the news article showed a human male and two Asari, the party smiling at the camera. Interest piqued, Richter looked closer and saw the human was actually Daniel.

"Dad is in the news? Wow!" Richter exclaimed, actually surprised to see his father in the news.

"Daniel is the Director of the Research and Development Department at Kassa Fabrication," she explained as her focus maintained on the article. "He works with the Asari and Salarians managing research agreements and proprietary technologies."

"He sounds really important, no wonder he is so busy," Richter replied, trying to remember if he ever heard anything like this before. He had guessed that Daniel was management of some kind, but never considered he would be in a position of interplanetary responsibility.

Richter would be a liar if he said he didn't feel like the luckiest guy in the galaxy. _People would kill for an opportunity like this. Reincarnated to wealthy parents in the Mass Effect universe. Lets not forget that Sofía and Daniel spared no expense on my 'manufacturing'. _He thought briefly on all the things that could have gone wrong. He could have been reborn as a Batarian or an Elcor. He might have been a female of some species too. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility he could have just been born to some spacers and end up captured by slavers. _Couldn't be luckier even if I won the lottery twice._

The young boy kicked his feet back and forth, legs not quite long enough to touch the floor.

"Nervous about the seeing the doctor?" Sofía interpreting his demeanor as nervousness.

"No. But we've visited him a lot already, do we have to keep going?" First Richter thought it was just because of Sofía and Daniel's concerns with his mental health, but he was starting to have doubts. The appointments still occurred regularly and the treatments seemed to get more elaborate.

"Rico..." Sofía went quiet and pulled her son tight into her side.

Richter felt awkward but he didn't say anything. He just sat there silently until the shuttle touched down at the hospital.

* * *

><p>The stench of antiseptic overwhelmed the young patient. Richter was sure his nostrils would burn if the smell had been any more potent. As soon as they arrived at the hospital, a posse of doctors and their nursing staff descended on the pair, swapping Richter's clothes to a sterilized gown and barraging Sofía with questions regarding a wide variety of topics: What had Richter eaten in the past month, has he complained about any pain, any difficulty speaking? He couldn't listen to all the queries of the frenzied professionals. After a few rounds of injections, nurses herded the boy out of sight through a set of double doors labeled <em>Diagnostic Imaging. <em>

The imposing machine sat in the center of the room, terminals and displays sat in standby mode hungrily waiting to be fed data.

"You remember what you need to do?" The escorting nurse asked the boy.

"Yep," Richter replied honestly. He was familiar with the Goliath machine. Particularly the unusual dull pain he felt after every session in the horizontally-oriented encapsulated device.

"Do your best not to move and we'll try to complete the scan as quickly as we can," the masked nurse said as Richter reclined into the tube. Electrode-like contacts were pasted to his neck and spine, causing slight discomfort as he laid supine. The nurse closed the pod's door locking it shut and moved over to the terminal.

The machine vibrated with a low hum, conducting various diagnostic tests before a click indicated it was ready to begin its true task. A sharp hiss could be heard from above his head, an influx of some sort of aerosol wafting into the chamber. The smell reminded him of a mix of ozone and mandarins, it was tolerable enough where he wouldn't cough while breathing in the gas.

Lights flashed as they moved from his head to his feet, to his head again, continuously moving for a period that felt like hours.

The Goliath entered a low hum once again and eventually the pod door clicked open. Relief passed like waves over his body as the fresh air hit his lungs.

"You did great, now Dr. Chen would like to talk to you," the nurse grasped his forearm and helped steady the lethargic child.

The floor felt ice cold, draining the heat from his body through his bare feet. His fingers gently massaged the soreness that radiated at the base of his neck. With his mind still foggy, Richter shuffled down the hall to the doctor's office.

The boy paused at the door to the office, he heard familiar voices echo from the room. Edging forward on his wobbly feet, Richter peaked around the corner of the door frame. A mid-thirties Asian man was chatting away animatedly with Sofía, who sat opposite of the doctor's desk.

"- consider alternative treatments for Rico," An imploring voice came from the woman, her hands rubbing themselves nervously.

"Ms. Ransom, I know his condition better than any licensed practitioner on this side of the system," Dr. Chen said reassuringly.

"I've read the intranet postings of the other _incident_ mothers," Sofía eyes were glued to her lap. "A few of the children have birth defects, others are in comas... some have died." Tears started forming in her eyes. "I just don't want to lose Rico."

"Everything will be fine, Ms. Ransom. The best course of action is to let us continue the treatments," Dr. Chen replied a little too eagerly.

"Dr. Chen, I'm going to get a second opinion. There are doctors who are handling similar cases to Rico's and I want to see what they recommend," Sofía said with a tone that suggested she wouldn't budge on the matter.

Richter slowly withdrew from opening, his mind focused and alert now. _Incident? No one has ever spoken about this topic before. _He couldn't nail down the possible context. Was it a bad batch of genetically altered children? Maybe a disease or sickness exposed to some children?

Before he could lean in and listen further, a nurse started walking in his direction. _Damn, I'll just search it on the intranet tonight. _Richter stepped through the doorway into the office, smile plastered on his face.

"Hey Rico! Ms. Arnolds told me how brave you were during the scan," Dr. Chen said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Very impressive."

"Yeah, I'm the bravest!" Richter gave his characteristic enthusiastic reply as he went to sit on the stool next to Sofía.

The doctor chuckled and reached into his lab coat pocket, brandishing a two-pronged device. The soft glow of its blue interface reflected off the white material of his coat.

Dr. Chen spun the stool around, sending Richter into a one-eighty degree turn with his back facing towards the doctor.

"The sensors will feel cold, but try not to move away." Richter felt the back of his hospital gown come loose as Dr. Chen undid the cloth ties. A moment later he felt the icy touch of the prongs on the base of his neck, wincing in pain as it pressed again the still throbbing area.

Dr. Chen ran the device down the boy's spinal column, pausing at certain vertebrae as the device gathered data. Satisfied with the results, he pocketed the device and spun Richter back around, so he faced both of the adults again.

"Looks like you're in good health, as always." Dr. Chen smiled again and exchanged a glance with Sofía, searching her features for a reaction to the good news. Unfortunately for the doctor, Sofía was not reciprocating.

"You can get back into your clothes Rico," Dr. Chen told the boy. Richter proceeded to throw on his outfit, distracted from the revelation he heard just minutes earlier. After readjusting his high collar, he turned around making eye contact with Sofía.

As if taking the cue from her son, "Thank you for everything doctor, I will call you to schedule another appointment if Daniel and I decide that's what we want to do." Sofía turned around, grabbing Richter's hand, and headed for the hallway.

"I highly encourage you to reconsider. But I understand, I hope you call us again soon so we can continue the treatment," Dr. Chen appealed a final time as they started walking.

* * *

><p>The pair left his office, the nurse escorting them to the entrance listing off things Richter shouldn't do for the next forty-eight hours following his treatment. Dr. Chen watched them leave, a subtle unfaltering grin holding until they were out of sight.<p>

Robert Chen's smile disappeared immediately, replaced with a scowl. He brought up his terminal and typed in the net-code to access the secure off-site server. Waiting for the server to verify his log-in information, Chen rubbed his temples and leaned back in his chair.

Within the past five years the project had faced many setbacks, the initial yield was far below the forecasted projections. The viable subjects for the project grew smaller every year. His neck would be on the guillotine if he couldn't produce results. Small fortunes were lost in exchange for the proof of concept they were achieving here.

The project has the potential to level the playing field between humanity and the aliens.

A soft ping sounded, drawing Chen from his thoughts and alerting the doctor of his timed limited access. He starting inputting the data quickly. Protocol was to erase any data within twenty-four hours of retrieval.

By some miracle, the idiot child who stood on the periphery of his research was now one of his best samples. The data Chen compiled suggested it would be a four or five more years before the subject was ready for phase two of the project.

All he had to do was ensure the subject stayed under his care until then. This was for the advancement of the species. And you don't advance the species without making a few necessary sacrifices.

Chen finish submitting the data and opened up a small encrypted free-text window.

_**RC6310014**_

_Priority: Immediate action requested_

_Subject RR7713_

_Continued inclusion in the project desired._

_Require immediate action: Covert/Gradual_

_Specifications: Incapacitate short term, long term is consequential_

_Attachments: bmetric, SR0681_

The window closed, notifying him that the message was sent.

_Yes, sacrifices are necessary, _Chen thought to himself. _This is just the first step, soon humanity will ascend past these aliens. All because of the work I am doing here. _Soon his selflessness would pay off. Satisfied with what he accomplished today, Dr. Chen turned off his terminal and left his office. He would need to treat himself to something special tonight.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **Thanks for reading through the first chapter of The Pretender. The chapter contained more introspection than I guess most people would like, but remember that Richter is concealing his true nature. Not a whole lot of action in this chapter and the pace is pretty slow but I promise the pace will increase within the next few. Please review if you'd like, this story is in its infancy and I'm still developing my writing style, so all feedback is welcome._


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